As the storm over phone hacking rages on, the editor of The Sunday Times says deception can sometimes be the only path to the truth

Slideshow: The Sunday Times — a history of investigative journalism

Sometimes in journalism the old tricks are the best. The pretty blonde in the
travel agency near the Place de l’Opéra was charmed by the dark and handsome
Englishman who spoke such fluent French. He popped in over several days and
even persuaded her to join him for a drink. Then he asked for her help. He
was a journalist, he said, and he needed to check some flight details.

His name was Jon Swain, a Sunday Times reporter who in 1984 was living in
Paris. Swain was in the process of unravelling the secret ties between
Arthur Scargill’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Libyan leader,
Colonel Muammar Gadaffi — then, as now, one of the most reviled figures on
the world stage.

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